So I am thinking of switching from my current cable provider to Dish Network. I remember a few years back reading that dish transmits their HD at 1440x1080i instead of 1920x1080i. My question is, is this still true today? thanks
Actual HD Resolution
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I'm always astounded by people who focus on numbers instead of the finished product. Often these same people are using displays that aren't 1920x1080 matrices.
I find that DISH compares well to my local Comcast but I freely admit that there is occasionally some noticeable artifacting. At the same time I find DIRECTV to be overly "punched up" in both color saturation and contrast but showing less artifacting.
I find that DISH compares well to my local Comcast but I freely admit that there is occasionally some noticeable artifacting. At the same time I find DIRECTV to be overly "punched up" in both color saturation and contrast but showing less artifacting.
I didn't see anything in that thread about the 1440x1080i. Pretty much I am wondering if dish still does "hd lite." And my tv has a 1920x1080 matrix. Its a panasonic VT series plasma.
Yes, Dish still does 1440x1080i.
That said, even though I'm now with DirecTV, HD resolution was not even a little part of the consideration. To my eyes the difference between what Dish and Direct provide in HD is so minute that a day or two after you start watching them, you don't even think about it.
Yeah, if you are a real nit-picker about the tech side of things, you might notice it if you move closer to the big screen. But otherwise, meh...
That said, even though I'm now with DirecTV, HD resolution was not even a little part of the consideration. To my eyes the difference between what Dish and Direct provide in HD is so minute that a day or two after you start watching them, you don't even think about it.
Yeah, if you are a real nit-picker about the tech side of things, you might notice it if you move closer to the big screen. But otherwise, meh...
Lots of HD is shot in 1440x1080i. "HD-Lite" is the most retarded term ever seeing as 1440x1080i is still higher than 1280x720p which is not called "HD-Lite."
Dish's way of dealing with bandwidth constraints is to shave off a little bit of the horizontal resolution. DirecTV's way of dealing with bandwidth constraints is to focus bitrate into the center of the picture while the edges get less bits. The human eye isn't near as sensitive to horizontal resolution as it is vertical resolution, just as we notice artifacts in the center of the screen more so than on the edges. Comcrap is just comcrap, using archaic MPEG2 compression at 12Mbps or less most of the time, far worse than Dish or Direct. Same goes for most of the cable companies. If you are lucky, cable sometimes looks as good as sat, but it's a gamble.
Dish's way of dealing with bandwidth constraints is to shave off a little bit of the horizontal resolution. DirecTV's way of dealing with bandwidth constraints is to focus bitrate into the center of the picture while the edges get less bits. The human eye isn't near as sensitive to horizontal resolution as it is vertical resolution, just as we notice artifacts in the center of the screen more so than on the edges. Comcrap is just comcrap, using archaic MPEG2 compression at 12Mbps or less most of the time, far worse than Dish or Direct. Same goes for most of the cable companies. If you are lucky, cable sometimes looks as good as sat, but it's a gamble.
Being 49 years old and my eyesight becoming worse each year I don't see the amount of horizontal resolution shaved off. 
Life is too short, just watch TV.
Life is too short, just watch TV.
I believe that depends on the individual system, as Comcast employs different headends, cabling, and set top boxes, depending on locality.
If you mean low in contrast and pasty color, I agree. Though I am am 20 years removed from video production (producer, not engineer), I would guess it took them a while to adjust their waveform monitors and vector scopes (or buy the new ones necessary).
Yes, low in contrast and pasty color is absolutely it.
Also, the artifacting was very apparent in the shadows of the old HD streams .. I figured it was poor compression .. you could see blocks washing around in the shadows of the screen. I had complained about it a few years ago and was told it was my TV's settings.. I switched to DirecTV and saw first-hand that the settings had nothing (or very little) to do with it. Fast forward a few years and now with Dish again, the picture is leagues above where it was... same TV, for the record.
BTW,when I said "them", I was referring to the channels, not Dish, Direct, etc. They just pass it along.
See, I'm not too sure about that. The difference between D and E was night and day... so unless you're saying that all the networks got it right that one day, I'd have to disagree. I'm pretty sure it was how Dish compressed / decompressed the signals.
I've got what I consider to be an odd situation. I had been using a Sony DN1000 AVR and just passing the stuff through and letting the panny plasma do whatever it needed to do. Setup was 480p/720p/1080i/p and Native on. But I had a Harman Kardon AVR247 in the closet and was missing the sweet sound that HK is known for. So I put it in place and after a bit I was playing around with connections and resolution settings.
Because of the Faroudja DCDI video processor for this model's ability only to 720p, I thought to do some extensive testing. In all cases, setting the HR24s to 480p/720p with native on produced a better overall picture in HD, and a very nice presentation of SD.
Tonight I did a quick swapout of the HK and Sony again, and it was really obvious that the video processor in the HK is making the 720p better in presentation than the 1080i that D* is providing.
Because of the Faroudja DCDI video processor for this model's ability only to 720p, I thought to do some extensive testing. In all cases, setting the HR24s to 480p/720p with native on produced a better overall picture in HD, and a very nice presentation of SD.
Tonight I did a quick swapout of the HK and Sony again, and it was really obvious that the video processor in the HK is making the 720p better in presentation than the 1080i that D* is providing.
I'm more astounded by people that write like you do...
As to the question of picture quality, both Directv and Dish have very good pictures with Directv having a slightly better picture, but which one has the programming that you want to watch? For me it's Directv because I'm a Yankee fan. That's what most important to me.
I am a big Dish fan, you couldn't pay me to get DirecTV (mainly because of their slimy way of using EVERYTHING they can to add 2 years to your contract). That being said they have a noticeably sharper HD picture than Dish. We have sold/installed both since 1999, we have 2 identical 40 TV's in our office, 1 with a 722 & Hopper hooked up to it, the other a HR-24. There is no question about which is sharper. My boss recently switched to Direct, he had had Dish for 10 years but wanted to get more familiar with the DirecTv product (we sell Dish at least 10-1 over Direct). After a few days of having DTV he was telling me how noticeable the better pic quality is. On top of that, just seeing it in the field as much as we do, it is there.
I still wouldn't get DTV though.
I still wouldn't get DTV though.
Relevant and on track with the discussion because the op was asking about picture quality. PQ doesn't matter if the provider doesn't have the programming that you want to watch. What good is PQ if you can't watch what you want to? See how simple it really is?
